‘Global Epidemic’ of Childhood Inactivity
- Thread starter Ming the Merciless
- Start date
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Slightly disingenuous. Of those 138 hours, only 16 of them are really at a time when the kids could be out of the house. Schools can help with encouraging a healthy diet - but the government wants them to feed kids for less than £2 per kid. Parents can of course encourage their children to do things at the weekend, but the majority of waking time is at school, not at home.
If you make the kids feel included, parents notes go away. I speak as someone who managed to get a parents note almost every week. I loathed Games lessons, playing rugby in the mud. My kids on the other hand whilst they might not "love" Games and PE, they enjoy it, because they are encouraged and supported. No-one is made to feel that they can't participate. It's about attitude. You get better teaching attitude with happy staff and good resources. Until we fund education properly however this isn't going to happen. Finland has the best state education in the world. They spend £15000 per pupil. We spend £5000.
We need smaller class sizes, better pastoral care, more varied curriculums, better paid teachers who can better inspire learning, etc etc etc.
Next step is to try and reduce our dependence on ready-meals and quick cook meals.
I agree with those points apart from the 16 hour bit. Parents get the children all the time before they start school which is a time when many bad habits set in. How can schools help on the diet, when their hands are tied, kids eat far more at home than at school. Father of 3 boys, well men now, two are teachers, all 3 did and still do sport, likely because from a very early age we showed them it was fun. Sport alone will not keep a child thin though.
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Absolutely correct. I loathed games lessons: I wasn't fat, in fact I was fairly fit, but I was always one of the smallest in the year, and frequently felt humiliated for "failing" because of teachers for whom the point of the exercise was to "win". Rugby and basketball are a nightmare when you're a head shorter than most of your peers. This sort of experience can put a potentially fit person off exercise for life.
My kids had much better teachers who came up with creative sports lessons with far more variety and took care to include all of the children in their class. As a result my youngest is now planning to become a games teacher.
Now if I can just get them to eat less crisps...
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
They do: Elder Son is a trainee bike mechanic, and that means he earns money.
Your youngest probably had a more positive experience of rugby at school than I did.
They did not play rugby at his school.
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Lucky him.
Nor did the one who played golf do it at school, nor did the one who has now raced bikes for over 31 years, do you get where I am coming from.
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
I think we're seeing the same pattern...
mustang1
Legendary Member
- Location
- London, UK
Kids are at school 5 days a week for 6 or 7 hours. They get two breaks about 30 minutes each, and a 1 hour lunch.
Eventually they go to work. They might have to commute an hour each way, work 10 hour days, 6 days a week. And they might get a quick break which is known as "lunch at your desk". So the obesity problem gets worse in adult life even for those who were very active as children.
Eventually they go to work. They might have to commute an hour each way, work 10 hour days, 6 days a week. And they might get a quick break which is known as "lunch at your desk". So the obesity problem gets worse in adult life even for those who were very active as children.
Only for those who in most cases cannot control what goes in their mouth, in kids cases it is the parents who control what goes in the kids mouth.
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
I'm not saying that schools are to blame for obesity necessarily, but they are where a child learns who they are and what they can do in many cases, and they have a massive influence on a growing mind. I learned to hate sports at school: one of my happiest memories was the day I realised I didn't ever have to do sports again, and I still dislike even entering a sports hall.
I only got back into cycling because of necessity and now because I like exploring. If other people have a similar experience, then you are likely to get a reaction to physical exercise that has nothing to do with exercise and everything to do with bad memories, for which in my case about three sports teachers are solely to blame.
As to eating, I think as with many cases, it's become a generational problem. Parents are often obese for a whole stack of reasons from learning difficulties to over work to lack of money. If they don't know how to avoid this, then their kids won't either. In the workshops I work at we see how clients with learning difficulties are victims of advertising and will buy whatever they see in the adverts, despite our best efforts to show how unhealthy these things are. Then they end up with type 2 diabetes at thirty.
